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Monthly Archives: November 2018

Terabit scale networking requires better Consensus.

Autonomous Networks and Autonomic Networking can be renamed as solving Consensus Dynamics.

Wikipedia States (Nov’ 2018):

“Consensus dynamics or agreement dynamics is an area of research lying at the intersection of systems theory and graph theory. A major topic of investigation is the agreement or consensus problem in multi-agent systems that concerns processes by which a collection of interacting agents achieve a common goal. ”

To note again it is an ‘intersection of systems theory and graph theory’.

Lets not forget that mathematically communications networks are Graphs. An OSPF/ISIS network is a weighted directed graph where the costs & metrics are the weights, the network devices are vertices and the ethernet L2 links are directed edges.

Furthermore, to note again that ‘ a collection of interacting agents achieve a common goal’. In networks the common goal can be to enable end to end, host to host connectivity over a vast network. TCP and UDP.

Interesting times ahead for Terabit scale networks. Keeps the fun alive in network engineering.

References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consensus_dynamics

Click to access EncyclopAI07.final.pdf

 

 

 

Simple NAPALM Use – A Python based abstraction layer multivendor support capable. Part of screen scraping solution.

Ansible ConfigMgmt / Jinja2 Templates – Part of a CLI automation system solution which can be called sophisticated screen scraping. via SSH. No on-device agent or service.

Salt / NAPALM Logs – Event driven network automation. This is also a CLI automation solution and can be part of screen scraping from network device perspective. Event driven by NAPALM logs.

Netconf or Restconf with YANG – Connectivity is via Netconf/Restconf (JSON/XML) while configuration is via YANG data modeling available on device (which is a service on device).  Not screen scraping or CLI automation as YANG is a data modeling language providing service and can be used to extract and push state at device.

SDN based Cisco ACI like: Northbound Rest API on APIC controller and Southbound OpFlex with an OpFlex agent on device. On device Policy Element abstraction service.

Good reference links for exploring of the above:

Ansible + Jinja2 Option:

https://networkotaku.wordpress.com/2017/10/24/network-configuration-templates-with-ansible-and-jinja2/

Salt + NAPALM Abstraction Option:

Click to access 17-RIPE76_-Event-driven-network-automation-and-orchestration.pdf

https://mirceaulinic.net/2017-10-19-event-driven-network-automation/

https://my.ipspace.net/bin/list?id=xNetAut181#SALT

Links for Restconf + YANG Option:

https://networkop.co.uk/blog/2017/02/15/restconf-yang/

https://networkop.co.uk/tags/ansible-yang/

https://packetpushers.net/podcast/pq-show-116-practical-yang-network-automation/

Links for SDN Style Cisco ACI – Like:

https://wiki.opendaylight.org/view/OpFlex:Opflex_Architecture

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/collateral/data-center-virtualization/application-centric-infrastructure/white-paper-c11-731302.html

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/switches/datacenter/aci/apic/sw/2-x/rest_cfg/2_1_x/b_Cisco_APIC_REST_API_Configuration_Guide/b_Cisco_APIC_REST_API_Configuration_Guide_chapter_01011.html